The Godfather
by samaside
Summary: Harry meets his godson for the first time after the final battle. [DH SPOILERS] [ONE SHOT]


Title: The Godfather  
Author: Samaside  
Rating: G

Disclaimer: The characters and storyline off which this story is based are the sole property of JK Rowling and her publishing companies.

Summary: Harry meets his godson for the first time shortly after the death of Teddy's parents.

Author's Note: Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is a one-shot story about the men behind Potterwatch. I intend to try and cover things more thuroughly in a later series about Potterwatch. This story is really just away to start using the characters and getting familiar with them.

* * *

The kettle in the kitchen cried out and Andromeda Tonks momentary stopped rocking her sleeping grandson and placed him down for a moment in his basinette in the living room. She turned off the burner under the kettle and the burner under the pot in which she had been warming a baby bottle. She took the bottle out and set it on the counter, expecting little Teddy to awake at any moment.

She peaked into the living room at the sleeping baby, checking on him momentarily before moving over to the sink and beginning to wash some of the other bottles. She had only a few, he hadn't really needed many. He was still only a few months old and when there had been four of them in the house Remus and Dora had always been on hand to wash and clean and rise and dry whenever there was need. Andromeda felt her chest constrict and muffled her dry sob with her drying rag. No, she would not do this. She could not do this.

But when she turned way from the sink her eyes immediately fell on a picture in the hutch behind her. It was a relatively recent photograph of her, Ted, and the children. She was in her best dress robes with Ted beside her. Remus looked far less haggard than usual in a set of dress robes he had borrowed from Ted for the wedding. And there was Nymphadora in a very simple white gown. They all smiled, waving up at her. She feebly raised her own hand and waved back, her face soaked with tears.

A cry from the living room brought her to her senses. Teddy. Named for a grandfather he would never know by parents he would never remember. The unfairness of it all forced Andromeda to fight back another sob. It had all happened so recently and yet it felt like forever since she had watched Remus, pale and still rather sickly looking after a recent full moon, rush out the door after Bill Weasley came to collect him. It felt like years since she watched her daughter, just minutes later, hand her grandson to her and kiss her goodbye.

Andromeda wiped her eyes and grabbed the bottle off the counter. She squirted a bit of the milk on to her wrist to check the temperature and, satisfied, walked over to pick up the crying baby. She sat down with him in a rocking chair in the corner by a bookshelf decorated with picture frames of all sizes and shapes in the spaces where there were not books. She rocked him gently in the same rocking chair she had rocked Dora in when she was a baby.

Teddy sucked the bottle contently, unaware of everything that had happened to him. He was far too young to notice the absense of his parents. Andromeda, who had been there his entire life, was enough to pacify him. He hiccuped and unconsciously his hair changed from a radiant yellow to a bright pink. Andromeda smiled sadly as she watched. She didn't know where the metamorphmagus gene came from - there had never been one in her family before and it obviously hadn't come from Ted's side of the family. But, she thought sadly as she looked down at her grandson, atleast that was one part of Dora that would live on.

Thankfully the baby favored Dora in that sense, if not in facial features. Andromeda agreed with Dora that Teddy favored his father greatly. She would not be surprised if he was the spitting image of a young Lupin a few years from now. But she couldn't help but me extremely grateful taht Teddy didn't favor his father completely. Andromeda loved her grandson but she didn't know what she would do if she had to raise an infant werewolf all on her own.

Though, she supposed, she would never be completely alone.

The basinette in the living room was the third she had been broughten in the span of just a few days. There was now one in Remus and Dora's old room, one in her room, one in the room set asside to be a nursery when - and Andromeda knew it sounded pathetic - Andromeda felt safe enough to part with Teddy at night, and now this one in the living room. They had come from all sorts of people; one set of Weasleys had sent one, then Kingsley Shacklebolt, and another set of Weasleys.

And today Teddy would meet his godfather for the first time.

Remus and Tonks had actually debated briefly who to name as Teddy's godfather. Tonks had immediately thought of Bill Weasley of whom they had both become very attached. She also felt connected to Bill and Fleur; they, too, were a young couple who was burdened with the knowledge that they may not have much time left together. She had also considered Kingsley because, she was sure, Dora felt that if something happened to her and Remus, Kingsley would be a strong protector for her son. But it had been Remus who had chosen Harry Potter and Tonks, eyes brimmed with tears, laughed at herself for not thinking of him sooner. After all, it wasn't every young boy who would be able to say that his godfather was "the Chosen One."

Harry had wanted to visit sooner but he had been unable to make it until now. In the past two and a half weeks, Harry had attended over fifty funerals. It had been widely publicized that he was using the last time turner known to the Ministry to travel around the country in order to attend the funerals of everyone who had died in the Battle of Hogwarts. She had seen him, briefly, at Remus and Dora's funeral the week before. Teddy had been with Bill Weasley at the time, sleeping in his arms in a chair a fair distance from the caskets so that the people waiting to say their final goodbyes before the caskets were lowered into the ground would not wake him.

Andromeda stood there between her daughter and her son-in-law as people filed past, giving her their condolences, crying and praying. She had recognized Harry Potter at once. He was alone; his two friends had been further back in line. And he just stopped in front of her and said, "I'm so sorry. This-this is my fault..." And in an instant he was crying on her shoulder. No one said anything but a few more people filed past. Then he composed himself, looked over at where Bill was gently rocking little Teddy and said, "I'll be there for him. I know what it feels like to lose- I'm going to be there for him." And then he had filed past the caskets and disappeared from view. He had left immediately to attend the funeral of a young man named Colin Creevey, a friend who had also passed in the battle.

There was a knock on the door and she stood up abruptly. Teddy's bottle dropped and she pulled him close to her. Indignantly he cried out and she relaxed a bit. If they were knocking at the door they weren't blasting through the door. And if they could get to the door, well then, she supposed she should be too concerend.

"Shhh, Teddy," she soothed the baby quickly and placed him in his basinette. "Nana will be right back. It's okay."

She brushed back the baby's green hair and smiled down at him. He calmed a bit from her touch and she walked briskly out of the living room and out into the foyer. She could see a figure standing out on the doorstep and hoped the door, wand at the ready.

"Harry," she greeted him but didn't ask him to step through just yet. "W-what shape did the boggart in Remus's class taken for Neville Longbottom?"

Andromeda saw him grimace at the memory; not the memory itself, she would realize after he answered, but what she had asked him to remember. "Severus Snape," he answered quietly. And then there was a faint hint of a smile as he added, "In his grandmother's clothing." She nodded and allowed him to cross the threshold. She took his cloak from him and hung it on a coat hook beside the door.

"He's awake," she told him. "You came at a good time. He just got up from a bit of a nap. We were having a bottle when you knocked." Andromeda stopped and bent over to pick the bottle off the ground. "I've got to go clean this up," she told him, showing him a bottle nipple with a few specks of dirt and dust. You can go ahead and pick him up and just set down over on the couch, if you'd like."

Harry watched Andromeda go out into the kitchen and walked over to the basinette. A bright eyed little boy with bright pink hair looked back up at him. He was so small. He was smaller, even, than Harry had been in this same situation. Harry had atleast had a year, had he not? Teddy had merely months. He reached down and picked the baby up, careful to support his head, and sat down on the couch like Andromeda had said. Atleast he had a grandmother who loved him, Harry thought, waggling a finger above the little baby who waved his arms about, attempting, he supposed, to catch it. "And me," he whispered.

Andromeda came back in a moment later with a clean bottle and handed it to Harry. He was sure she had not really been cleaning it - scourgefy would have worked just fine. Her slightly puffy, still red eyes gave her away.

They sat in silence for a while. Harry held the bottle for Teddy and he sucked away contently. Andromeda sat quietly in her rocking chair, watching them both and Harry spent most of the time looking down at Teddy. He could see Lupin in his chubby face, just barely. And he saw Tonks very easily in his bright pink hair. Harry felt like he was going to choak up but composed himself. He didn't want to cry. Not now. He had cried so much already.

After Teddy was fed and burped, Harry held him in his arms as he began to fall asleep again. He rocked him gently wondering how many times he had fallen asleep in Remus's arms like this as a baby. Perhaps more times than even Teddy had with how short a period he had spent with his father. He watched the sleeping baby move in his sleep and smiled down at him sadly.

"I saw Remus," he told Andromeda in barely more than a whisper. "I saw him in the forest, after he died. He was there with my parents and my godfather. I was so sorry. I told him that. And Remus... He hoped that Teddy would one day understand." There were tears in his eyes now. "He hoped that he would understand why."

"And Dora?" Andromeda asked almost hopefully.

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. Just Remus. And they were gone shortly after."

She nodded and watched Harry continue to rock Teddy.

"I'm going to be there," he said, repeating what he had told her at the funeral. "I know... I know what it's like. To lose both of your parents to Voldemort. And he should know Remus." Harry reached down into his pocket and pulle out a small picture frame. It was a picture of Remus and Sirius and James he had found in Sirius's bedroom in a desk drawer. Undoubtedly Pettigrew was taking the picture which had been fine with Harry. He had been hoping to find one without the traitor. "I brought him this," Harry said. "I don't have much of Remus's... just what he left at Sirius's and some pictures... I thought he'd like to have this as he got older."

He reached out, careful not to wake the sleeping baby and Andromeda got up slightly from her chair to reach over and take it. She looked down at the picture. They were younger and Remus was happier than she had ever seen him. They were children in Hogwarts robes. Innocent, long before any kind of pain and suffering had reached them.

She smiled. "Thank you, Harry. I'm sure he'll thank you himself one day."

Harry nodded and wiped at his eyes. Then he stood and placed the baby in his basinette. "I've got to go," he said, sadly. "I'm due in Norfolk in an hour... it's the last one."

Andromeda nodded in understanding and walked out into the foyer with him. Harry took down his cloak and put it back on. She laid a hand on his shoulder and then pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, Harry," she said. "He's going to need you someday. Thank you."

He tried to smile but all he could do was wipe away the last of his tears. She gave his arm one last squeeze and he stepped out on to the doorstep. With a turn and a swish, he was gone. Andromeda closed to door and went back into the living room. She took the picture of the young Remus and his friends and placed it next to the picture of Remus and Dora's wedding. And then, from a developing kit in the kitchen cupboard, she pulled a finally fully developed photograph. It was the only one like it she had.

Sitting on the couch in the living room, Remus, smiling, played peek-a-boo with a small baby laying in a smiling Dora's arms. She looked down at the picture fondly and then proped it up next to the others, promisng to find a frame the first chance she got.


End file.
